[EDITORIALS]Fair Trade Commission Graybeards

Some mid-level officials at the Fair Trade Commission caused a stir recently by calling on their seniors to step down from their offices. They posted a message on the commission's Internet home page, urging senior officials "to retire voluntarily because they are creating a promotion bottleneck, and its younger officials lost their morale." This incident has some significant points to which our society should pay attention. First, we should think of the seriousness of the internal problems within the commission, a major central economic body of our government. Furthermore, we should consider if there was anything wrong with such an action by those medium-ranking officials, since they are the pillars of the organization.

It is not the first time that slow promotions within the commission were criticized. In February, some critics publicly compared the commission to a retirement home, and repeated comment on the topic amplified the conflict. Within the commission, officials generally agree with the Internet message in question. The failure to resolve a problem which has long been in the open leads us to suspect its leader's ability to manage the commission. If those mid-level officials were wrong, then the leader should have corrected their misunderstanding. If there is a promotion bottleneck, then the leader should have proposed alternatives to resolve the problem.

The mid-level officials involved also chose a strange way to raise the issue. It is not appropriate for the officials of a central government body to post their dissatisfaction on a Web site, a public space. Although the Fair Trade Commission has more gray hairs than other economic ministries, what is important is its ability to do its job, not the age of its employees.

We wonder how the Fair Trade Commission can possibly do its work under these conditions. The commission has already lost the confidence of the business community, and this incident will make it even more difficult to regain public trust. The commission should resolve the problem and restore morale quickly, so that it can get on with its work.